Our Arts in Education survey ran from 3 - 21 August 2020, and sought to provide us with a better understanding of where the arts are well-placed to work with education and learning partners in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We wanted to establish how best to support children and young people’s access to artistic, cultural and creative opportunities during COVID-19 recovery, and where further support and advocacy could help to build capacity.
While we recognise that much has changed since August 2020 across both the arts and education sectors, many significant challenges remain.
The key issues of training, funding and networking remain pertinent to those who are actively delivering as well as those who are aspiring to deliver creative learning activity.
Our work is therefore ongoing, but to-date and since undertaking this survey we have been focusing on the following areas:
- Since July 2020 we have been working constructively with colleagues from across the arts sector through the Arts in Education Recovery Group (AiERG). They are collectively advocating the importance of the arts in education recovery and are providing guidance and support around the safe delivery of arts with schools and community learning settings.
- In August 2020, the Scottish Government allocated Creative Scotland £3m to support youth arts and ensure that creative opportunities for children and young people continue to exist across the country despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The targeted and open strands of the resulting fund allow for project activity working across early learning and school settings. We aim to evaluate the impact of this as well as highlight learning and best practice.
- We are evolving our strategic partnership with Education Scotland, to understand the current context of COVID-19 and to explore how children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing can be improved through creativity and arts-based approaches. This includes looking at how we can work together into 2020/21 to ensure high quality cultural and arts-based experiences are widely accessible to all learners.
- With additional targeted support from the Youth Music Initiative (YMI), the Music Education Partnership Group (MEPG) are offering free training sessions and mentoring to support music teachers, instructors and freelance tutors in the delivery of online tuition. Training sessions will be led by professionals who are currently delivering online, and most will offer a hands-on experience for music tutors and freelancers working in schools to develop their digital technology skills.
For more information on our work across arts in education, please contact Interim Creative Learning Officer Jonathan McLean: [email protected]